Fort Center, near Lake Okeechobee Florida, is one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in America. The Indians who lived there built mounds and gigantic circles of dirt, may have been the first in America to cultivate maize, and participated in a mortuary cult.

This book chronicles the excavation of the site and discusses the finds.

Appropriately illustrated, this book is a model of how archaeological research should be reported.

I know, I know! Disney draws us to Florida, but if you come and go without paying a visit to the awesome "liquid heart of Florida," you will miss something more enduring and exquisite than anything Disney ever imagined or man ever built.

Since the beginning of time, the haunting beauty of Lake Okeechobee has attracted Indians, European explorers, fugitives, millionaire industrialists, and wanderers--like the author of this small book of charming essays and exquisite black and white photographs of the fascinating people who live on the shores of Okeechobee.

The author\photog, Jim Janosky, is a former environmental education specialist with the U.S. Army at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He's also a poet, farmer, photographer, and a Nashville songwriter who has written for Kathy Mattea (The Cape) and Jeff Carson (Real Life).

Jim says, "The lake lies quietly, almost invisible, behind an earthen dike. Maura and I discovered that if you keep silent as you drive around the massive body of water, you can feel its subtle presence . . . I can't explain its magnetism, but if you go to Port Mayaca around sunset and sit quietly on the dike, you'll feel it . . . and you'll go back."

Listen! Go to Disney World. Laugh your heads off! Then to experience a real touch of wonder, go to Lake Okeechobee with this guidebook in your lap.